Ichibuntai
by Irunic-Kori
Summary: full summary inside Uchiha Itachi and Uzumaki Kori have been teammates and best friends since they were genin. when they went into ANBU there was one problem, they were both going to be captains. ItaOC OCTema NaruSaku SasuTen but Sasukes cool in here


AU. Uchiha Itachi and Uzumaki Kori have been teammates ever since they were genin. When they went into ANBU there was one problem, they were supposed to be captains. Danzo proposed an experiment and the Hokage and Council approved. After being the most succesful ANBU squad, Itachi and Kori are off missions on one condition, help watch over the upcoming chunin exams. ItaOC. OCTema. NaruSaku. SasuTen (but Sasuke is cool and not uptight and stuff because Itachi never slaughtered the clan). Please read and review

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Ichibuntai

Prologue

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Uchiha Itachi was 6 years old and getting ready to graduate from the academy. He was curious about a boy the same age graduating tied at the top of his class with himself. The boy had short black hair with light blue eyes with a black shirt and gray shorts. The boy's name was Uzumaki Kori. The boy was very quiet and kept to himself ever since the kyuubi's attack. It was rumored that he was related to the late hokage, but he would never even speak as much as two words about the now deceased hokage. Itachi felt bad for him. He looked like he just wanted someone there for him. His mother died in childbirth and he was forced to raise his little infant brother alone. Itachi walked up to him and sat down next to the boy. "Hi! I'm Itachi! Who are you?" he asked in a friendly tone.

"My name's Kori." He said in his normal nonchalant voice.

"Well, what are you doing here all mope?"

"Nothing, waiting to get assigned my team so I can go home and take care of my brother." He said bitterly

"Team 4, Uchiha Itachi, Uzumaki Kori, Shinta Byakuna. Sensei, Inuzuka Tsume."

"It looks like we'll be on a team!" Kori just scuffed. Itachi looked at him solemnly.

"If we're going to be teammates, we'll need to work on team work. I'll stay after school if you want to." Itachi got up and left for lunch and Kori did too. After school Itachi was waiting by the swing set if Kori would show up. After about 10 minutes, Itachi was about to give up when he saw a figure walking up to him. He saw it was Kori. "I was beginning to think you weren't going to show up."

"Well, I wasn't but I found someone to watch my baby brother so I came."

"I see." That day they spent getting to know each other and the two had a sort of connection and decided to do it again sometime. Over the time they spent on their missions they pretty much became best friends. Itachi knocked Kori out of his shell and the two became inseparable. By their 7th birthday, Itachi and Kori reached chunin and became even closer. A year later both awakened their doujutsu, the Sharingan and the Naiyagan.

Over the years the two went on numerous missions and were always a team. By age 13, they both were ready for ANBU. The problem was, was that the two were at a captain's strength. You couldn't put two captains on one squad because that would be disastrous with the chain of command, but the village didn't want to separate the two because of the accomplishments the two brought forth when working together. Danzo proposed an experimental ANBU program. Five teams consisting of two captains with a senior, who would be the leader of the two. Their codenames would go by order of rank i.e. senior of squad one would be 'number one' and the other would be 'number two' etc. It would benefit guerilla tactics and promote faster mission commencing. The hokage approved and automatically the first squad, ichibuntai, with Itachi, Codename: Ichiban, as senior and Kori, Codename: Niban, as secondary. The two accomplished their first mission in record time and accuracy and it led the experiment into the right direction.

After their first mission, Uchiha Shisui tried to steal the forbidden scroll and Itachi was there to intercept him. Itachi killed his closest friend next to Kori and he wound up obtaining the Mankgekyo Sharingan, but refrained from using it. A little while later, Kori visited a hospital to check up on a family of children Itachi and him saved on a mission. There were three kids, a 10 year old, a 5 year old and a 6-month-old baby. They were in such a bad condition that they were already dying and the oldest begged Kori to kill them all to "Save them from the pain and get to the afterlife with their dead family already." Kori followed through with the request, even if it went against his personal morals. It was part of his morals however to follow through with someone's dying wishes so he performed them. Kori was put on trial for murder. He pleaded 'not guilty' and they officially went to court. Itachi testified on Kori's behalf saying that the children were dying of infections from the wounds they received before the two of them made it to the town. Danzo also defended him not only saying Kori was a far too valuable asset to the ANBU and the experiment project he was conducting, but bringing new evidence into the court. It was a will written by the two older children pleading to not punish Kori for only doing what they wanted him to do and forgive him. The council found Kori not guilty and all Kori had to deal with after was the guilt. After getting through with the guilt with the help of Itachi, Kori discovered something he didn't even know in a myth. He checked the clan's achieves and found what it was, a power. A power called the Kashaku Naiyagan.

A few days after the discovering the doujutsu, Danzo gave them new ANBU masks, they were regular hunter nin masks. When they asked him why they didn't have anything on them and were identical, Danzo simply told them "Use your imagination." They simply knew he meant to make their own designs. Itachi made his in his Mangekyo design with the Uchiha clan symbol on the middle of the forehead. Kori made his in the normal Kashaku Naiyagan style with the Uzumaki emblem in the middle of the forehead.

Both of them were constantly being challenged by their younger siblings to fight them and the both of them simply got poked in their foreheads to "put them in their place". Naruto and Sasuke became friends too, which put a smile on Uchiha Mikoto's face. Everytime she saw the two of them she felt like she was looking into the past with Kori's and Itachi's beginnings of friendship. When Kori and Itachi were younger, Mikoto would take care of Naruto when they were on missions or if Kori needed a break. She was amazed at how Kori could put up with all taking care of his younger brother and himself.

At 14, Kori and Itachi started to feel like they were drifting away from their clan heritage and decided to keep something on them that would permanently keep them close to their clan. They decided to brand their respective clan emblems onto their left bicep. It made them unique to everyone yet different to themselves. They had their ANBU tattoo on their right bicep and their clan symbol on their left. It was probably the one thing that they felt not only looked tough to show off to the girls of the village, but also felt close to on a personal level. At 15, Kori wound up convincing Itachi to ask out Uchiha Theda, his long time crush, she said yes and Itachi practically ran straight to where Kori was after politely excusing himself to tell him that he owed him big time. Kori said it was nothing and simply took his offer for some time in the future.

Throughout the years, Uchiha Itachi and Uzumaki Kori were more than just teammates and friends they were best friends. They did everything for each other and with the other in mind. Now at 18, Itachi and Kori were one of the two squads left in the project, and by far the most successful. With 68 S-class missions, 42 SS-class missions and 2 SSS-class missions completed, and only 3 failed, they were simply the best. Their first mission they failed was to get information on enemy missing nin, but RECON was not their strong points anyway so it wasn't exactly a shock that they failed. The second they needed to arrest a jonin, and they were successful until the jonin escaped his jail cell before they were able to officially sign the papers that turned the responsibility over to the other ANBU that watched the prisons. Many believe that that specific mission failure should be exempted from their records on account it was pure coincidence that right before responsibility was turned over that he escaped, but Kori and Itachi simply said "he was in our custody technically so the blame shall rest on our shoulders". A week later the two assassinated him. The third failure was to clear seven bridges of enemy presence and disable explosives on those bridges before the enemy blew the bridges. Kori and Itachi weren't fast enough and only saved three of the five. That was the only mission that most believed they could have succeeded at. The two were among the villages best at Shunshin speed and distance. Itachi and Kori were the best of the best. They rarely made any mistakes and almost all the time they made one they corrected it. They were the heroes of many academy students.

Now at 18, the two were free from missions for now and took the time to relax and enjoy their time off. Their assignment that kept them from missions was simple. Help regulate the upcoming chunin exams. The exams that their little brothers would be participating in. Uchiha Itachi. Uzumaki Kori. Ichibuntai.


End file.
